Chapter 2

After Grandma was discharged from the hospital, since her legs had failed completely, she moved back into the old house in the hometown. To take care of her, Ida spun like a top every day, shuttling nonstop between her own home and Grandma's.

Elisa couldn't stand to watch it any longer. She ached for her mother, and she was even more furious at her uncles' shamelessness.

One time, Elisa went back home for the weekend, and seeing her mother's back so worn out from washing Grandma's bed sheets that she could barely straighten up, a nameless rage shot straight to her head. She pulled out her phone and dialed Uncle Warren directly.

The phone rang for a long time before it was answered. A somewhat lazy voice came from the other end. "Hey, Ellie, what made you think of calling your Uncle Warren?"

"Uncle Warren, Grandma's been out of the hospital for three months now. My mom takes care of her every day, and she's so worn out her high blood pressure has flared up. You four sons—have you worked out any kind of plan at all? You won't pay the medical bills, you won't even come see her. Are you really planning to dump Grandma on my mom to handle all by herself?" Elisa's tone was blistering, and she gave him no consideration at all.

There was a full ten seconds of silence on the other end.

Then Warren's voice suddenly turned unusually cold, even carrying a trace of barely perceptible irritation. "Ellie, grown-up matters aren't for a junior like you to butt into. You think we don't want to help? You don't understand a thing! Your mother insists on showing off—that's her choice!"

"What do you mean it's her choice? She's your own mother!" Elisa was shaking with anger.

"Enough, I'm busy." Warren didn't offer one more word of explanation and hung up coldly. Listening to the busy tone coming from the phone, Elisa was so angry she threw the rag in her hand onto the floor right then and there.

From then on, Elisa's family bore enormous financial and emotional pressure, sending Grandma living expenses on time every month and buying her all kinds of imported nutritional supplements.

Ida even created a group chat called "One Loving Family" and pulled her four older brothers into it. Every day she would post photos and videos of Grandma eating, taking her medicine, and sitting in the sun, trying to awaken the consciences of these four men.

But the group was like a dead, silent black hole. No matter what Ida posted, the four uncles either played completely dead or, only on holidays, sent a heartless "Happy Fortune" sticker.

Watching her mother quietly grieve in front of her phone screen every day, Elisa's contempt for the four uncles reached its peak.

She was firmly convinced her uncles were a pack of greedy scoundrels who, for money and an easy life, would cast aside the very mother who had raised them like a worn-out shoe.

It wasn't until that gray, rainy winter that things took a complete turn.

That winter was especially cold, and the heating in the old house back home was poor. Grandma complained to Ida on the phone that the cold draft in the house bored straight into her bones, that her bad knees ached so badly she couldn't sleep all night long, and that even getting up to pour a cup of hot water in the kitchen was a struggle.

After the call, Ida hung up and sat on the sofa wiping away tears. Elisa's father sighed and fretted beside her, not knowing how to console her.

Seeing her parents like this, and remembering Grandma's weak, helpless voice on the phone, Elisa felt a rush of heat to her head and made a decision that would change the whole family's fate.

"Mom, stop crying." Elisa walked over to her mother and held her cold hand. "Since the uncles are all animals, then we'll take care of her. It's too pitiful for Grandma to live over there all alone. This winter, let's bring Grandma here to live with us. The place isn't big, but the heat's good, and you and Dad can look after her whenever she needs it."

Ida's head shot up, her eyes full of disbelief, and then her tears flowed even harder.

She hugged her daughter tightly and said over and over, "Ellie, you really are such a good child... but you're not even married yet, and having an old person bedridden year-round in the house—I'm afraid it'll affect you..."

"Mom, we're family—no need to talk like we're strangers. Grandma's already eighty-three—how many more years does she have? Let's just consider it good karma." Elisa's tone back then was full of righteous, morally superior conviction.

Elisa's father frowned deeply, but seeing his wife's hopeful eyes, in the end he silently nodded too.

And so, on that cold, damp winter afternoon, Elisa drove over and brought her eighty-three-year-old grandmother into their once warm and peaceful three-bedroom apartment.

Back then, watching Grandma sit in the wheelchair, clutching her hand with old tears streaming down her face as she said "Ellie is the most devoted of all," Elisa's heart was filled with emotion and pride.

She thought she was a hero rescuing an old woman, thought she had raised a moral banner in this cold-hearted family.

She had no idea that what she had brought home with her own hands was not a kind, frail old woman, but an "emotional vampire" who knew human weakness intimately and could kill without drawing a drop of blood.